Life & Faith

With despair on the rise and hope in short supply, children’s literature offers people of all ages a treasure trove of wisdom.Dr Amanda B Vernon is a literature expert who believes that children's stories are not just for children. In this interview with Life & Faith, Amanda talks about how stories written with children in mind often shed light on deep human needs, including our longing for justice, agency, truth, wonder and redemption through suffering. From Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter to Winnie the Pooh, Amanda explores the joy, the wonder and the enduring wisdom of children’s literature.Explore:Amanda B Vernon’s website: www.amandabvernon.comGeorge Macdonald’s, ‘The Fantastic Imagination’Neda Ulaby's NPR article on "protopias"

Darrell Bock fears the church in the U.S. is in danger of losing its distinctiveness. How might it recover? The United States is a divided country, and this year’s presidential election will bring that into sharp focus. Darrell Bock is a New Testament Scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary and the Executive Director of Cultural Engagement at the Hendricks Center.Life & Faith interviews Darrell about the divisions in the U.S. and how tribal and ideological they have become. Darrell is concerned that the church has increased this polarisation with its misplaced loyalties, and by creating a social atmosphere that does not deal well with difference. Darrell believes it has been a mistake for the church to become an extension of a political arm, and that younger people have left the church in droves as a result.Darrell sees a great need to return to a sense of welcome and care for the marginalised, as a distinctive marker of the love of God.Explore: The Hendricks Center Darrell Bock books (there are many) Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone’s Asking  Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture’s Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ Gospel of Luke Commentary 

The spirit of our politics feels negative and harmful. Michael Wear believes the improved spiritual health and civic character of individuals can change that.“We belong to a political party because we believe things, we should not believe things because we belong to a political party”.Michael Wear is the author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life. In this episode he talks to Life & Faith about his desire to cultivate a more healthy and vibrant political and civic life in his country that is wracked with polarisation and enmity across the political spectrum.Wear is under no illusions as to how large a challenge that is but remains committed to making a contribution towards a healthy pluralism.He also has huge reservations about the way in which faith has been captured to further political, rather than religious, outcomes. Wear think there is huge danger in Christianity being instrumentalised as a means of advancing one set of political ideas. Instead, faith should be about the flourishing of all society. Explore:Michael Wear’s latest book The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life.Michael’s previous book Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama Whitehouse About the Future of Faith in America.The Centre for Christianity and Public Life 

The headlines are grim, and the world feels apocalyptic. It’s time to become the people the world needs right now.“I don't know how to fix climate change or geopolitics, but I know what I'm called to do, which is put my roots down deep into love and be growing up, be becoming the kind of person that the world needs.”Elizabeth Oldfield is the author of the book Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times – and turbulent our times are. Climate anxiety, political polarisation, social unrest, and diminishing attention spans haunt our days. Also present, but perhaps less obviously so: our gnawing spiritual hunger and desire for connection with ourselves, each other, and maybe even what Elizabeth calls “the G bomb”: God.In this interview with Life & Faith, Elizabeth talks about “steadiness of soul” in an increasingly chaotic world and what it means to live in a small, intentional community or “micro monastery” that can fit 18 people around the dinner table. The conversation also covers how Elizabeth has managed to cultivate a space for profound chats across social divides in the podcast The Sacred, and what it meant for Elizabeth to flout careerist dogma and quit her stable, secure job to rest and lean into a different way of life. ---Explore:Elizabeth Oldfield’s book Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent TimesHer letter about leaving her job that hit a nerve with peopleHer Substack newsletter Fully AliveThe Sacred Podcast

A philosopher and a butcher dig into what we should and shouldn’t eat, and why.“As society has shifted away from being in close proximity to farms and food production, people are increasingly concerned about where their food’s coming from – the condition under which animals are raised and reared, and certain farming practices, [such as] pesticide use and the effects that that may have on the environment as well as on human health.”Philosopher and sociologist Chris Mayes has thought about eating a lot more than most of us (which if we’re honest, is already quite a bit). The ethics of food involves a whole raft of factors: not only the treatment of animals and the environmental impact of production, but also the treatment of workers and the impact of the growth of pastoral land on indigenous peoples.“In Australia it seems natural that we would have sheep, and natural that wheat would be here, but in thinking of the obviousness of those practices and products here, we forget their role in dispossessing indigenous Australians – the way that the expansion of sheep, particularly throughout NSW and Victoria in the early to mid-nineteenth century, was coinciding with a lot of these most brutal massacres.”Chris considers what it means for lamb to be Australia’s national cuisine – and how you make Scriptures that rely on the language of sheep and shepherds meaningful within a non-pastoralist culture.Then: Tom Kaiser is Simon Smart’s local butcher. Perhaps unusually for a butcher, he thinks people should eat less meat. He sells meat products that many would consider to be expensive in what he calls the “Masterchef era”.“Affluence definitely plays a big part. They can afford to have the product that they see on TV. We know for a fact that we wouldn’t be able to charge the price, nor have the same model we have in different parts of Australia. … Ethics is obviously multi-layered. It comes to personal beliefs. It comes down to knowledge.”Explore:Chris Mayes’ book Unsettling Food Politics: Agriculture, Dispossession and Sovereignty in AustraliaCPX’s new podcast The Week @ CPX

Nick Spencer and Hannah Waite challenge the notion of humans 'playing God' in their book. They discuss the responsibilities of advancing technology and the ethical, humanistic, and spiritual aspects of the questions it raises. The podcast delves into the impact of AI, human modification, immortality, digital consciousness, and theological implications of alien life on Christian beliefs. It explores themes of personhood, creativity, and relationality in a thought-provoking conversation about the future of humanity.

Bill Bennett, director of the film The Way, My Way and Camino legend Johnnie Walker Santiago reflect on the spiritual riches of going on pilgrimage.  “I see this walk as an 800km long cathedral”. So says Australian filmmaker Bill Bennett in the film The Way, My Way, which depicts Bill’s experiences walking the Camino de Santiago.The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St James, is a network of pilgrimage roads and paths running through Spain, France, and Portugal, leading to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in north-western Spain, long believed to be the burial place of the Apostle James.The Camino has been an oft-travelled pilgrimage route since medieval times. These days, plenty of spiritual seekers like Bill, and others looking for connection and adventure, become modern-day pilgrims, driven to discover deeper truths about life along the way.This episode of Life & Faith interviews Bill Bennett, the director of The Way, My Way as well as Johnnie Walker Santiago, a beloved expert and authority on the Camino de Santiago. ---Explore:Trailer for The Way, My Way The book Bill Bennett wrote, upon which the film is based: The Way, My Way: A Camino memoir Johnnie Walker Santiago’s guidebooks: Camino to Santiago: A spiritual companion and It’s About Time: A call to the Camino de Santiago Check out CPX's new podcast, The Week @ CPX

This dreaded disease seems to strip away everything that makes us, well, us. A chaplain and a psychiatrist remind us of the human at the centre of the diagnosis.---The ‘d’ word – dementia – is one that everyone fears. It seems to strip away everything that made that person with the disease the person we once knew. It’s easy to lose sight of the person, the human at the centre of the diagnosis.Today, 420,000 Australians live with dementia, a number projected to double in the next 30 years, which makes it a significant and growing health challenge for Australia’s ageing population.This episode of Life & Faith brings you two conversations that bring the human at the centre of the dementia diagnosis back into focus. We’re featuring two interviews Natasha Moore did before going on maternity leave: with Neil Jeyasingam, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney. Neil is also a CPX Associate. Natasha also spoke to Ben Boland, a chaplain with 15 years’ experience in residential aged care – and whose father lives with dementia. Explore:Dementia Australia, the national peak body representing people with dementia, their families, and carers. Check out CPX's new podcast, The Week At CPX, to keep up-to-date with everything that’s happening at CPX, plus a bit of commentary on the side.

Mercy Aiken tells Life & Faith of the joy-filled, yet painful life of Palestinian Christian, Bishara Awad.Bishara was a child in Jerusalem when his father was shot and killed during the Israeli-Arab war of 1948. The story of his life and that of his family provides a sobering portrait of life in Israel/Palestine during decades of war, violence, tension and dashed dreams for those seeking a peaceful resolution to conflict.Somehow, Bishara, a Palestinian Christian and community leader, remains unbowed, but also forgiving and empathetic towards his opponents. His story is told in the book, Yet in the Dark Streets Shining – a Palestinian Story of Hope and Resilience in Bethlehem. The coauthor of the book is Mercy Aiken – who came into the CPX studio. Mercy was in Australia with the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network.The book: Yet in the Dark Streets Shining – a Palestinian Story of Hope and Resilience in BethlehemPalestine Israel Ecumenical Network 

Asuntha Charles has lived in some toughest places in the world. And she’s loved it.   Long  As a young woman, Asuntha Charles stubbornly defied her culture to advocate for vulnerable women and girls. That determination never left her as she dedicated her life to voiceless people in not only her native India, but places like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Iraq.Here she tells Life & Faith about her extraordinary life of service and care for people who needed that care most. And we also get an insight into the early influences that shaped her life and contributed to her holding a faith that sustains her even in the face of risk, and heartbreaking losses.Try listening to this and not be challenged and inspired!---Sign up for the CPX newsletter here